


Grin and Bear It

by TheFourtiethHorseman



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Discipline, Don't Like Don't Read, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Keith is a reckless little shit, Keith kind of deserves it, No Smut, Non-Consensual Spanking, The other three are sneaky, but honestly, shiro is so done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 19:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14195772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFourtiethHorseman/pseuds/TheFourtiethHorseman
Summary: “Ooooh, Keith’s in trouble…” Lance said, and well, yeah. Having the paladin of the Black Lion drag him down the hallway by his ear was a pretty good indicator for how much trouble he was in, which is to say, a lot.





	Grin and Bear It

**Author's Note:**

> Written for GWAK, whoever you are.

“Ooooh, Keith’s in trouble…” Lance said, and well, yeah. Having the paladin of the Black Lion drag him down the hallway by his ear was a pretty good indicator for how much trouble he was in, which is to say, a lot.

He hadn’t actually been expecting that part. Shiro must have stolen the move from Allura, who once grabbed Lance by the ear and hauled him out of the command room, depositing him unceremoniously in the hallway and locking the door in his face. He’d been… extra annoying that day, but he’d spent the next few days sulking around her and looking guilty, so it must have worked. Keith could see why. It hurt like a bitch.

“Ow! Shiro…” he complained, but Shiro didn’t bother with a response as he marched Keith into his room, sat down on the edge of his bed, and tugged Keith effortlessly over his lap. Having nowhere to go but down, Keith landed stomach first over Shiro’s knees, hands braced on the cold floor in front of him. And yeah, if Keith thought he was in trouble before, there was no doubt about it when he was met with the sting of Shiro’s hand crashing into his backside.

“Hey!” he yelled, immediately starting to squirm and trying to throw himself off of Shiro’s lap. Shiro just hooked a hand in the back of his pants and hauled him forward, ass up, face down, and smacked him again. “Want to tell me why we’re here?” Shiro asked.

Keith clenched his jaw and twisted around to glare at Shiro over his shoulder. “‘Cause you’re a dick?” he offered, and got smacked again.

“Wrong answer, kiddo.” He spanked him several times, in quick succession, sending Keith writhing against his lap. “Your smart mouth is what landed you here in the first place.”

Okay, yeah, so maybe Keith had instigated this a bit. He knew he was in trouble, in for the lecture of a lifetime, and had tried to put it off as long as possible. But when Shiro started to tear him a new one in front of everyone, he’d snapped, “Geez, Shiro. Would you just lay off?” Shiro’s face had turned to stone, and that’s how Keith found himself where he was now.

A particularly hard slap jolted Keith out of his thoughts and had him biting down on his lip to keep from shouting. “Nuh- ah!” He got cut off in the middle of a word “-knock it off, Shiro, come on! I’m not a little kid!”

“If you hadn’t acted like one, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Shiro replied, not stopping the even cadence of his hand falling, left-right-left-right, as he spoke. “Let’s try this again. Why are you getting a spanking?”

Keith felt his face heat up in a blush, embarrassment flooding him entirely and making his stomach drop. “This is stupid,” he grumbled, and he heard Shiro sigh. Shiro grumbled something about, “...Not getting through to you…” before Keith felt his pants being tugged down his thighs.

“Wait, Shiro, no-” Keith said, then choked on his breath when Shiro started spanking again. He clenched his hands into fists and gritted his teeth, trying not to react to the burning ache that was spreading through his ass, more and more every time Shiro hit him. He was kind of regretting his decision to sneak off as soon as they’d gotten back, hitting the showers and trading his armor for his ordinary clothes. The suit would have served more protection than just his boxers, he was sure.

If Keith looked over his shoulder, he could see that the door to Shiro’s room was closed, but that didn’t mean it was sound proof. If anyone heard what was going on in here, or worse, if anyone walked in to investigate and found him with his pants bunched around his knees, he’d probably die of embarrassment.

He was dying of embarrassment anyways, biting back yelps and hissed breaths from having his butt blistered, bent over Shiro’s lap like some little kid. This was probably the most mortifying thing that had ever happened to him, and yeah, maybe he deserved it, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.

A pathetic “ow…” escaped Keith’s lips, and he pressed his hand over his mouth in response, not wanting to give any sort of indication that Shiro was actually hurting him. Because Shiro was delusional. If he could make it through the ass kicking he took from the Blade of Marmora, willingly, then Keith could make it through this. Keith wasn’t a wimp. This kind of punishment wouldn’t work.

But when Shiro started talking, Keith found it harder to hang onto his control. “I never want to have to do this again,” he said, and Keith wanted to snap back, “Then don’t,” but egging Shiro on at this point could only end badly for him.

“You scared the hell out of me. You disobeyed direct orders, you threw yourself into danger with no back-up, you abandoned your team, and you purposefully cut off communication with us.”

It sounded worse when Shiro phrased it that way. It’s not like Keith was being an idiot on purpose; it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. They were taking too long in recon, and Keith saw an opening, so he took it. Yeah, maybe smacking his hand over the communication board and effectively cutting it off in the middle of Shiro saying, “Keith, get your ass back here-” wasn’t the wisest choice, but he couldn’t think properly with everyone yelling at him. He cut off the screens in his lion and muted his helmet, and he may have accidentally turned off his GPS tracker in the process. But that shouldn’t have mattered. His plan should have worked.

It almost did, too. He had Red drop him onto the roof of the Galra base they were surveying, and he was in and out with the quintessence sample they’d came for almost effortlessly. It was only in the last few seconds that he’d been cornered by Galra guards, and if Hunk hadn’t literally crashed through the wall and let Keith swan dive into the Yellow Lion’s mouth, he might not have made it out of there.

The worst part of it was that one of the guards grabbed his leg while they were taking off, and in an effort to shake the Galra off without falling out of Yellow’s mouth, he ended up dropping the container of quintessence he’d snagged.

So yeah, maybe he fucked up there, but it should have worked out fine. It almost did. And anyways, dangling helplessly from the lion’s mouth while it rocketed up thousands of feet off the ground had been a pretty good lesson on being more careful. This was pointless.

“You can’t keep putting yourself in these situations,” Shiro scolded. Keith tried really hard not to listen, but it was kind of hard in this situation. “Like it or not we work as a team, and I’m done watching you disregard your own safety. You understand me?”

Shiro was really laying into him now, fast and mercilessly hard, and Keith had to grit out a ‘yes sir’ through clenched teeth so he wouldn’t end up crying out like a baby. It hurt more than he’d imagined it could, and Shiro wasn’t showing any signs of stopping or slowing down. Keith hated to admit it, but he wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. He was quickly losing his pain tolerance. When Shiro’s hand came down on his thigh instead of his ass, the sting was so bad that it knocked the breath out of him in one giant gasp. He hit the same spot, again and again, and Keith practically shoved his fist in his mouth to keep quiet. He was almost relieved when Shiro went back to spanking his well-abused ass instead- almost, but not quite.

“When I was captured by the Galra I thought I’d never see you again. I’m not losing you now because you won’t put any thought into your actions.” Something in Shiro’s voice broke at that, and Keith felt a heavy stone settle in the pit of his stomach.

This wasn’t a punishment for the sake of vanity. This wasn’t a slap on the wrist, ‘how dare you disobey orders,’ ‘don’t do it again’ sort of thing. Shiro would have set Coran and his mountain of chores on him if that were the case. This beating was fast and erratic and hard, it was embarrassing and personal, and it made Keith realize just how worried Shiro must have been about him. He thought doing this would keep Keith safe, keep him from doing it again, and he was taking full advantage of that opportunity.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve pulled this sort of stunt, Keith, but frankly, I’ve never been more disappointed in you.” Keith choked on the lump in his throat and swallowed hard, feeling all of him deflate slightly under the weight of Shiro’s disappointment. This wasn’t the first time he’d done something like this, of course it wasn’t, but they’d talked about it before and he’d promised every time not to do it again.

Apparently Shiro was done believing him.

That stung. That stung more than his ass did, drawing him up tense and prickling behind his eyes. He’d disappointed Shiro. He’d made him worry. He’d made him angry enough to do this. Shiro was supposed to trust him. Shiro wanted him to lead Voltron.

What could Shiro possibly think of him now?

“I’m sorry,” Keith choked out, breath coming out in shaking bursts. He clung desperately to Shiro’s pant leg with one hand and squeezed his eyes shut tight. The last threads of angry thoughts flew out of him, the ideas of revenge during sparring sessions or through pranks or maybe just the silent treatment, and Keith was left only with overflowing regret. “Shiro, please! I’m sorry!”

“Why are you sorry?” Shiro asked, not slowing down or lightening up or showing any sign of mercy. Keith didn’t deserve it anyways.

It was hard to talk, and his words came out stuttered, but he managed to struggle through, “I’ll be more careful! I’ll think things through! It won’t happen again, I swear!”

“I want to be able to trust you, Keith,” Shiro said. Keith felt his eyes burning, and his vision blurred. When he blinked hard, tears spilled out and rolled down his face.

“You can, I promise. I promise I’ll do better,” he blurted out, beyond thinking about embarrassment and dignity. It’s not like he had any left. “Ow! Shiro, I’m sorry.”

Shiro shifted them both, and Keith kicked his legs desperately, pounding his feet into the floor in an attempt to deal with the pain as Shiro laid smack after relentless smack to the tender underside of Keith's butt. "Hold still," he warned, and Keith tried his hardest to listen, seething once again with rage because it hurt and he'd said sorry and he couldn't believe there were tears in his eyes over this.

"You get why I had to do this?" Shiro asked.

Keith growled wordlessly through his teeth and hid his face against his arm. "Yes."

"Tell me why."

Oh for the love of- Shiro was just milking it now, but Keith fought against the pain that was taking all of his focus and did his best to put words together. "I'm too reckless. I need to think before I do things. I didn't listen to you."

"You going to fix that?" Shiro switched back to spanking his thighs, and Keith couldn't hold back a yelp.

"Yes!"

"Am I going to have to do this again?" He switched from the fast, stinging strikes to slow deliberate ones that nearly knocked Keith off his lap. The spaces between them were long enough that he felt every bit of it, but at least he had a chance to catch his breath.

"No!" Keith exclaimed. "No, you won't, I'm sorry!"

Finally, finally, the spanking stopped. Shiro rubbed Keith’s back and shushed him gently, the hand hot through the fabric of his t-shirt from being used to beat Keith’s ass. Keith didn’t bother moving, just laid there uselessly and tried to get his breathing back under control, relinquishing his hold on Shiro’s leg in order to scrub at his face with his hand. God, he was crying. That was so humiliating.

“Five more-” Shiro started to say, but Keith interrupted with a whispered, ‘oh God….’

“Five more with my Galra hand and you’re done. Ready?” Keith would never, ever in his lifetime or anyone else’s be ready to subject himself to that. And a short while ago he would have said so, shoving Shiro away with a scowl and some angry words, but he knew better now. He knew he had this coming to him, and if five more was all it took for this to be over, then fine. He could take five more.

He rolled his shoulders and got his hands back under him, fingers splayed flat on the floor and holding him up. He cleared his throat. “Ready.”

“Count.”

Keith counted, gasping out each number and ducking his head between his arms, hiding his pained expressions so Shiro couldn’t see them, tucking in tight like that might help. It ached, the metal hurting far worse than Shiro’s human hand, and it reawakened a fire that hadn’t even begun to calm down. The sound of his hand cracking down echoed off like a gunshot, and Keith was certain everyone in the castle could hear it. After the fifth one Keith went limp, hiding his face against his arm and panting through his open mouth to try to get more air.

Shiro was soothing him again, petting him gently and murmuring quiet reassurances that Keith would usually scoff at in any other circumstances. He bore it patiently, taking deep breaths until his heart stopped hammering a million miles an hour, and then he pushed himself up. Shiro helped him struggle to his feet, standing with him and giving Keith time to put his pants back into place before pulling him into a bear hug. Keith squeaked, having the wind knocked out of him for a second time in the past half hour, but hugged back tight and hid his face against Shiro’s shoulder.

“I needed to know you were listening this time,” Shiro explained. Keith actually chuckled.

“Heard you loud and clear,” he said.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again. Not on purpose.”

Keith grinned. He wanted to tease Shiro about being worried about him, something like ‘What? Think your baby brother can’t take care of himself out there?’ Instead he nodded against Shiro’s shoulder and mumbled, “I won’t,” into the fabric of his shirt.

“I’m sorry I had to do that,” Shiro added, and Keith actually started to laugh about how much Shiro felt he needed to justify himself. Keith couldn’t stop laughing, tucked in close and shaking with poorly suppressed laughter in the circle of Shiro’s arms.

“It’s fine, man, really. I… I kind of had that coming to me.” He stepped back into his own personal space and rubbed at the back of his neck, keeping his eyes down and still feeling sheepish about what had happened, even if there was still a slight grin playing at his lips.

“Kind of?” Shiro teased.

“Whatever.”

Shiro reached a hand out and ruffled it through Keith’s hair before heading to the doorway. “Come on,” he said. “I’m sure Allura has some words for you.”

Keith’s light hearted demeanor dropped instantly, and he groaned dramatically at the prospect of another lecture as he followed Shiro through the doorway. Shiro smacked him on the ass once, quickly, muttering “Behave,” and Keith immediately covered his butt with both of his hands, rubbing the sting away and putting himself a safe distance away from Shiro on their walk to the command room. Just in case.

 

 

…

 

-A short while earlier-

 

“We really shouldn’t be here,” Hunk whispered, eyes frantic and worried as he scanned up and down the hallway for what had to be the fifth time. “This is a total invasion of privacy, guys! Lance!”

“Sh!” Lance snapped, waving his hand at Hunk without looking at him. He and Pidge both had their ears pressed to the door of Shiro’s room and were listening intently. “I don’t want them to hear us.” All three of them were kneeling on the floor, and while Pidge and Lance kept snickering into the hands that were pressed over their mouths, Hunk winced every time he heard any noise from inside the room.

“Guys…” he complained.

“I told you Shiro was going to kill him,” Pidge whispered. “Pay up.”

Lance grumbled quietly, digging around in his pocket before he pulled out something that looked like an oversized microchip, a bronze-ish coin from some planet they’d stopped at, and a shiny blue rock. “Fine. I bet you he cries.”

“Oh no way, you’re so on,” Pidge snatched the items out of Lance’s hand and pocketed them, grinning deviously without directing any attention away from the door. None of them noticed (Pidge and Lance too preoccupied with their spying, Hunk to preoccupied with worrying about it) that Princess Allura was coming down the hall towards them.

When she cleared her throat and said, “Paladins,” standing directly behind them and looking down at them with her arms crossed and a raised eyebrow, they all jumped out of their skin. Lance smacked his head on the wall, and Pidge dropped the blue rock, causing it to skitter across the floor.

All three stared at her for a long second, eyes wide and caught redhanded. Lance stuttered out a, “Oh! H-hi Princess!” as Pidge lept to her feet and scrambled off down the hallway, Hunk following close behind her. Lance shot a panicked look between them and Allura, then put on his widest, most innocent grin, and took off running as well.

Allura watched them go, shaking her head at whatever shenanigans they were getting up to, before turning and squinting at the door. She couldn’t hear very well, and she was curious as to what they’d been listening to, so she stepped closer and pressed her ear against the metal surface.

“...-SMACK- You -SMACK- disobeyed direct orders, -SMACK- you threw yourself -SMACK- into danger -SMACK-”

“Allura?” Coran’s voice carried down the hallway, and Allura immediately sprang away from the door and walked swiftly in the other direction, not wanting to explain herself. Though she wasn’t certain, she had a pretty good idea what she’d just overheard, and she found herself laughing quietly. Just a bit.


End file.
